"I'm beginning to say that this isn't your grandfather's ACS, it isn't even your father's ACS," said Reedy, 60, noting the importance of delivering the very best customer service and admitting that transformation could have been implemented better. He also revealed ACS's new commitment to fund research.

ACS, he said, must be purpose-driven and focus-oriented, and its staff and volunteers must be ready to embrace change.

"Prior to transformation, we were more inward focused and now we are more market and patient-centered and want to become as relevant as possible," he told MedPage Today in his first media interview since becoming CEO in April 2015.

He explained why he hadn't granted any interviews until now.

"I really didn't want to talk to any reporters until I had a lay of the land and a vision of where we were going. I needed to do a lot of listening and a lot of thinking and a lot of planning before I could really share anything other than some thoughts. So it was nothing against reporters in general, I just didn't think I had anything to say other than the usual stuff that people usually say," he said.

Once he started talking, Reedy was very open about organizational mistakes, changes, and challenges, making the "promise that the day I feel I'm no longer being effective or lose my zeal for the mission is they day that I will step down."

Reedy was one of transformation's architects serving as chair of the National Board Advisory Committee on Transformation. He also was chair of the ACS's board of directors at the same time that former NCI Director Vincent T. DeVita, MD, was serving as the society's last volunteer president during 2013.

For a brief while, ACS had two concurrent presidents -- the volunteer physician post and a staff president title held by the COO.

Now it has none, and Reedy said that he has no immediate plans to fill that position and has been serving as COO as well as CEO.

"I really wanted to roll up my sleeves and understand how the society operates. We didn't need another layer of management," he said, noting that pronouncement shortly after he took on the job had probably endeared him more to ACS's staff and volunteers than anything else he said at the time.

He said he wanted the society to be as organized and efficient as possible, with a direct line of responsibility and accountability, adding this meant more work for him with more direct reports but that it was necessary for a CEO/COO to understand how to deliver a mission and raise revenue.

"You really can't effect change if you don't understand, and I am a person who is huge on accountability and I report to the board and its chair and want to get ACS back on track to make it the most relevant and leading cancer fighting organization out there."

First Relevance, Then Revenue

Reedy noted he had three themes that he had presented during a town hall meeting with ACS staff and volunteers when he first started last year: "Mission, Revenue, and Relevance," with "nimbleness" being a critical factor in achieving them.

But at a follow-up town hall meeting, he told his audience that he had made a mistake.

"The three themes are the same, but I put them in the wrong order," he explained.

"Mission is still first, but I had the wrong order for the other two, because only when you are relevant and viewed as relevant can you effectively increase your revenue," he said.

The CEO said that he's been traveling around the country and letting everyone he meets know that "ACS is open for business," and that he will engage in conversation with anyone who wants to discuss partnerships or collaborations: "1 and 1 equals a minimum of 3, or even 5 or 6," he said.

He said that ACS is intent on doing what it can to eliminate pain and suffering from cancer, and that one of the great things about Vice President Joe Biden's national cancer moonshot initiative is its sending a message to the nation about the real importance of eliminating this disease.

"To do that will require us all to work together, and the sooner we do it, the faster we'll get there. It's time to leave egos at the door, get out of our silos, collaborate, and start to change things," he said.

More $$ for Research

ACS decided to use the moonshot summit in late June to roll out a research funding initiative it's been working on for the last few years.

It was related to a concern that Vince DeVita raised in an interview with MedPage Today last year, when he wondered if the ACS board of directors would make good on its promise to double its research budget within the next decade.

Reedy said that in accordance with moonshot's goal of accomplishing research in 5 years that would normally require a decade, ACS planned to double its $120 million research budget to $240 million by 2021.

He said he planned to raise the additional revenue in ways not done before by shifting some focus within the current budget, continuing with operational efficiency, and making the organization even more volunteer-centric than before so that volunteers can be more effective in raising money.

When asked about the decline in revenue from the society's signature Relay For Life events, he admitted that the decline has continued from what it had been, and that it was more successful when "the community owned it."

He said there have been changes at the top of the relay business unit, and going forward ACS will be more flexible in how the relay is run, noting that the one-size-fits-all concept will be changed to one that reflects the needs of individual communities.

Reedy said that last November he hired Sharon Byers as ACS's chief development officer, calling her a "real rock star" and praising her 28-year career with Coca-Cola, most recently as senior vice president of Sports, Entertainment, and Community Marketing Partnerships for North America.

Easier Said Than Done

Formulating a new strategic plan is always easier than implementing it, he said, adding that as long as he is CEO the society will have to be comfortable with and ready to embrace change.

"If people are looking for a steady state, that's not going to happen, that's not reality. It's all about leading the largest cancer fighting organization in the world to become the best that we can be."

At J&J, he served as North America president of Ortho Biotech, and as worldwide vice president of government affairs and policy with responsibility for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

He retired from Johnson & Johnson the week before he was officially named ACS CEO, in early April 2015, succeeding John R. Seffrin, PhD's 23-year tenure at helm of the cancer society, but said that he had made his retirement known the prior January.

Reedy and Seffrin had worked together for 15 years, during Reedy's years as an ACS volunteer beginning in 2000 when as president of Ortho Biotech he decided to become active with the society while working on a collaborative project related to ACS's Reach To Recovery program.

Over the years Reedy has served as chair of the society's Board of Directors and as chair of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) board. His other voluntary leadership positions include, in addition to chairing the transformation committee, serving on the Board of Trustees of the American Cancer Society Foundation, and as an Honorary Life Member of the society.

He was pre-med at Emory & Henry College, where he is currently vice chair of its board of directors, but wanted to get married after college and took a job as a pharmaceutical sales representative, climbing the pharma corporate ladder for the next three-and-a-half decades, until retiring last year into what he terms a dream situation. The Reedys will celebrate their 38th anniversary this year.

"I'm working as hard as I can, feeling exhausted, but feeling great. I would tell you that I love my job, but it's not just a job, it's a calling, and I feel blessed to be in this position. I'm not doing it for the money, believe me."

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